The Rise of Rex, Chapter 93: Merciless Onslaught

Chapter 93: Merciless Onslaught

For context, read the previous entry in this series: http://imgur.com/gallery/ZBeZ0

For further context, start from the beginning: http://imgur.com/a/fBSuQ

For my mod list, go here: http://www.modwat.ch/u/MojaveMilkman

My name is Rex.

14 FROSTFALL 4E 201

Me and my band of mercanaries have been hired to take Treva's Watch, a ruined fortress in The Rift. Why anyone would want a ruined fort is beyond me, Maybe it has sentimental value or something. What really matters is that we're getting paid to do it. This will be our first real, semi-official job as a mercenary band. Taking this fort will be a pivotal first step in establishing ourselves.

Come to think of it though, almost every fort we've come across has been ruined....

I stepped into the interior of the fort still shivering from the cold night.

Even in the Autumnal forests of The Rift, hypothermia is a very real concern.

We had a hell of a job ahead of us.

With the watchdogs above all dead and a Legion contingent waiting outside, we had the grisly job of clearing out the bandits inside.

"Nice try."

I couldn't tell if I was getting better at avoiding traps or if the ones here were just poorly placed.

Even as I set off all the traps, we tried our best to sneak.

It didn't go well.

"Combat it is, then."

"You do good work, Illia."

The more I saw of her, the more I appreciated my decision to bring her along.

With the first batch of thugs dispatched, we moved farther into the fort.

When you sneak through bandit-infested forts and dungeons, you start to overhear their conversations.

But it wasn't until that day that I started to empathise with them.

Was still going to kill them, though.

At this point, Ugor and I were working on the lower levels.

We made a pretty good team.

She picked up the slack when I fucked up.

"Good idea."

That bandit dead, we moved on.

Right into a trap.

Okay, I take back what I said about being good at avoiding traps.

Just as I narrowly avoided the spike trap, we were ambushed by a mage.

Knocked Ugor off her feet pretty quick.

"Hold on Ugor, I've got an idea!"

Well that didn't work.

I guess the trap takes some time to work again.

I went down too.

But I bounced back.

And ran right through the trap.

"Now in fairness, I didn't say it was a smart idea."

With the mage dead, I moved upward to scout ahead.

Having sustained injuries from both the trap and the mage's lightning, I needed a quick heal.

Unfortunately, they heard me casting the spell.

One of those mages in the College should really think up a quieter healing spell or something.

They were alerted to my presence, but didn't know our location.

Yet.

I went back to check on Ugor.

She was still injured pretty badly.

She'd need more time to recover.

So I forged on ahead to protect her.

After all, it was mostly my stupidity that got her injured.

I equipped the Ring of Perception and got to work.

Now with night vision, I confronted the bandit chief on the stairway.

With my lightning staff, I was able to keep him back.

Long enough for my friends to catch up, at least.

That's when the fun started.

We cut through them like butter.

Up top, I found the chief's chambers.

I did a bit of enchanting while I could.

And stopped for a bit of light reading.

I was always a sucker for a good book.

We pressed through the fort.

With their chief dead, we would hopefully not have far to go before being done with this job.

"Uh yes, hello? I'm looking for the scum of the earth. Is this the right room?"

"It is!"

The battle was hectic, but we survived with only a few injuries.

And I helped myself to their stuff.

"Escape tunnel...."

"Should we have used this first?"

Inside the escape tunnel, I noticed a bandit at work.

I jumped right past him and into the corner.

"I'm not the one who's lost, friend."

"Nice work, team."

At his work station I found plenty of materials with which to work.

Enough to forge something studier and more fashionable than my current gear.

No time to switch gear at the time, though.

"Yikes. Hope we weren't supposed to save those guys or anything."

"Yeah, I hate it when they fight back."

"Hang on guys, I have another idea!"

Okay, that wasn't a good idea either.

But it worked.

But we were all alive, mostly.

"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic."

"Well, we did it."

"Your... oh."

Maybe those were the corpses we saw earlier.

"Well, good luck with that."

I didn't tell him about the bodies.

"That's it? All I get is a lousy spell tome I don't need?"

"Oh, whatever."

"Yeah, gold."

I complained, but the payment didn't really matter.

What really mattered is that we won.

We took on our first job as a mercenary band and we triumphed together.

We had earned a night's rest.

Around the fire, I spoke with Inigo.

He didn't have much on his mind.

But that's what I liked about it him. He was simple.

I counted myself lucky to have a friend like him.

I was lucky to have friends like all of them.

I'm really glad I stole that cheese wheel.

Chapter 94: http://imgur.com/gallery/npAIL